coconut milk

If there’s one simple cooking method that crosses over nearly every Asian cuisine, the hot pot may be it. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Mongolian and more. And with cooks of every level still making it every single day, that’s proof in the pot that it is indeed totally easy to crave, and to make.

This post is brought to you by McCormick

I like to think of hot pot cooking like the Asian fondue. It’s communal. It’s active. It’s social. And that’s what makes the hot pot just as perfect for entertaining as it is for a simple but fun dinner at home with the family where everyone gathers around the simmering brothy pot and jockeys for position and that perfectly cooked shrimp. Everyone gets to eat exactly what and how much of whatever they want, so long as it fits in the pot :).

Our family has a serious affair with Asian cooking and after our recent travels to Vietnam, Cambodia and Korea, we returned with even MORE passion for Southeast Asian food than before. If that’s even possible. So it’s no surprise to me then that when I checked out this year’s McCormick Spices Flavor Forecast report that identifies the top upcoming trends in food I wasn’t too surprised to see what topped the forecast for 2018: a love affair of worldwide flavors of Hot Pot cooking.

Back home here in Salt Lake City, we have a favorite hot pot restaurant where every customer heads to the back of the restaurant to a wall of self-serve refrigerated coolers stacked with racks of color coded plates to choose from nearly every hot pot ingredient you can imagine. It’s like a frigging hot pot gold mine.

To say I have some serious hot pot inspiration and aspiration is an understatement. But as usual, my cravings have set me to the task!

Coconut milk flavored with peanut butter makes a classic Thai-inspired, creamy sauce for bell peppers and sautéed shrimp for an easy dinner any night of the week.

I feel that I’ve led you astray. That I didn’t deliver. That I was just a being a big tease.

Actually, there were a plethora of you who said that’s exactly what I was, when you e-mailed me in droves asking where the recipe was for the photo of this dish in my Friday Faves without sharing the recipe.

You’re right. I owe you this recipe. And I’m delivering it in two different versions, one that was the original from a cereal cooking challenge I was part of and the other version minus the cereal for those of you looking for a simpler version.

A refreshing combination of coconut cream and coconut milk infuse tropical flavors into my favorite reposado tequila margarita, served on the rocks.

Once upon a time I went on a train ride. Sure, I’d been on trains before, but nothing prepared me for this ride of a lifetime.

This train was owned by self-made billionaire John Paul DeJoria, founder of John Paul Mitchell and Patron Spirits, and was deemed by DeJoria as, “the favorite of my 13 homes.” But unlike those other homes from New York to Hawaii, this one just happened to be powered by an Amtrak steam engine.

How in the heck did I end up there?

Lucky me, I know people who are very generous and invited me and my husband along for the ride. It’s also where my love of tequila was cemented in stone.

These chicken wings may be skinless but they still bake up nice and crispy in the oven, and are served with a creamy Thai peanut sauce that’s to die for.

I had a hunch chicken wings might fill the bill.

A hunch that these skinless, baked wings (say what? healthy-ish even?) might fit right into a round of lounging about with friends and family who are perfectly positioned with beverage in hand while the big game rambles on in the background because we’re all ignoring the commentators and waiting for the commercials anyway.

This is a recipe that begs for the reach-in. Where there will be no penalties or unfair, uncalled for whistles, except for that holy-cow-show-me-more-low-slow-whistle that you only hear on construction sites when a hot chick ambles by.

This fish chowder, if it could talk, would have a long story to tell about a very short trip I was on that ended in minutes with a very quick fall.

This soup and I met on a rainy Alaskan night. There were no walks on the beach but we did get caught on the rain. The piña coladas were on an entirely different continent and man oh man, how I wished I had champagne to kill the pain. But this soup from Cordova, Alaska’s local Fishwives, and it’s subtle Thai-inspired flavors saved me instead.

With just 5 simple ingredients, my Thai Pumpkin Soup delivers a curry and coconut flavor combination more often expected from a pumpkin soup recipe with far more ingredients than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Bonus: It’s ready to eat in under 10 minutes.

My Smudge has been losing her mind this year with anticipation of Halloween, dressing up herself, the house and of course, the dogs. Oh those poor dogs.

She’s carved 172 pumpkins and has even planned out what container she’ll be storing her “free” candy in after she roots through her haul (these from OXO make her feel like she has a candy store right at home.) As long as that stash is close to me, I like her plan.

I love Halloween too. But man, when Halloween is on a weeknight, the rush of getting her home from school, then getting us all into costumes, rounding out the candy and then either hosting the annual Halloween party (woo-hoo I got a pass on that this year) or sailing off to one of her friends’ house to do the trick or treat routine (yea for friends!) takes TIME.

And time is always a precious commodity since its usually a rarity.

That’s why with just 5 ingredients as the sum total of deliciousness, my Thai Pumpkin Soup is the perfect last minute fare.

Spinach, I love. Broccoli, bring it on. But cauliflower? I can usually leave it at the kitchen door.

I’m DEFINITELY a late convert to this cruciferous’ fan club. So what made me cross the picket line? Well, it has to do with a favorite flavor addition which totally made my Thai Coconut Cauliflower a new fave.

Here’s the thing about cooking with slow cookers. It’s convenient. But only if you’re creating a recipe where you don’t have to dirty more than the slow cooker. Like this Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Soup.

I’m all about time management. I eat breakfast while I do the dishes, I brush my teeth while I tie on my running shoes. In other words, I’m a multi-tasker who isn’t terribly efficient at getting much of any of my laundry list of daily to-dos completed because my mind thinks I have to do more than six things at at time. Why? Oh why?

So these days, unless its a lazy day weekend, my to do list doesn’t always necessitate spending an hour and a half making dinner. I don’t mean letting it cook, I mean MAKING dinner.

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